Drug delivery device toxic for tumors, not patients

“We use the device to hit the primary tumor hard. It’s an exciting approach because there is so little systemic toxicity that it leaves room to administer additional drugs against cancer cells that may have spread in the rest of the body.”

— Jen Jen Yeh, M.D.
Associate Professor, UNC School of Medicine

Pancreatic cancer is deadly. But a novel drug delivery device set for clinical trials in 2020 could help doctors attack tumors, improve outcomes and reduce side effects. A team of researchers from UNC, including Drs. Jen Jen Yeh and Joseph DeSimone, has shown in preclinical research that the device can deliver a particularly toxic dose of drugs directly to pancreatic tumors to stunt their growth or, in some cases, shrink them. This approach would also spare the patient toxic side effects.

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This is story number 110 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.

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